


The Beast Inside

by Silent_So_Long



Category: Priest (2011)
Genre: Blood, Blood Drinking, Community: smallfandomflsh, Gen, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-17
Updated: 2012-03-17
Packaged: 2017-11-02 02:07:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/363819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silent_So_Long/pseuds/Silent_So_Long
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Black Hat pays Lucy a visit to sate his bloodlust.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beast Inside

**Author's Note:**

> written for the [smallfandomflsh](http://smallfandomflsh.livejournal.com) prompt #81 - “wild”

The train swayed around Black Hat’s tall form, yet he barely moved, long since accustomed to the constant motion. His hands rested upon the bars to the cage installed into the carriage, fingers coiling around smooth metal that seemed blissfully cool against his skin. The clatter of the wheels was a constant noise beneath his heavily booted feet, as the train rattled through endless tracts of desert, criss-crossing across the land between walled cities. The air was hot, walls and roof heated by the warmth of the day and the constant battering of the sun streaming down upon the train. Although the carriage around him was dark, the vampire could see perfectly, eyes more powerful than a mere human‘s. 

Outside, Black Hat knew there would be more desert, more sand, more blasted landscapes and ash hanging and burning in the skies from the last great war between humans and vampires. Back then, when the war had raged across the lands, he’d been one of them, one of the Priests hand-picked by God and the Church to fight against the encroaching threat of the vampires. The humans had won, of course, but just barely and not without great cost to society, already beaten down into submission by a near-choking theocratic rule. 

Black Hat remembered those times but didn’t mourn them. That had been before Sola Mira, before he’d been turned against his will into the monster he had become, before he’d been given a new purpose, a new goal in life. He wanted revenge against those who’d left him behind to be killed and born again into something no one had ever seen before and perhaps would never see again. Revenge tasted sweeter against his tongue than even blood did, and fired him on with more energy than his previous job of killing vampires had. Then, killing vampires had been something he’d been born to do, not necessarily something he‘d chosen to do, his very genes marking him out as something different, something special, something more than human. He hadn’t known any better, then; now he did. Now he knew what it was to hate and to feel anger, to have something else driving him on other than merely being born into the life and having no choice. 

He grinned, then, sudden flash of teeth glinting in the meagre light drifting through the cracks in the wall, fangs dipping down to rest against his full lower lip. He blinked, eyelids blotting out the fierce yellow glow of his eyes, obscuring their intensity for all too brief moments. Inside the cage, when he opened his eyes again, still rested Lucy, the daughter of the Priest that had wronged him. Her body was lax in much-needed sleep, something that Black Hat himself no longer needed in the same sense of the word. Sleep for him now was the sleep of the dead, total obliteration from the world for hours at a time until it was time for him to rise again, and not the blissful release and escape from the waking world he had once known and sometimes enjoyed. 

Inside the cage, the girl stirred slightly, hands clutching at air and the straw beneath her still sleeping body, snuffling slightly in unseen dreams that only she was privy to. Black Hat wondered then what she dreamed about, whether she had pleasant dreams of life before her family were killed by his Familiars, or whether her dreams were darker yet, where his dream-self stalked to terrorise her. He rather hoped that it was the latter; he enjoyed the fear that roiled from his victims, tainting the very air around them both until his blood sang with the power of it all, burning deep inside his body. He wondered then how she would react if he entered the cage instead of remaining outside as he had before, to stalk towards her, to taste her blood in fleeting moments before retreating behind the metal barrier of the bars once more. He wondered then if she’d be brave like her father, or be frightened like the rest of his victims. Even the majority of the Priests were frightened of him, Black Hat knew, simpering idiots that pleaded for their life mere seconds before they hung lifeless from myriad crucifixes in the streets, bodies lax in death as warning to those who’d dared leave him behind to die.

On impulse, he unlocked the door, before slowly swinging it open, yet even that one slow movement made the hinges squeal and cry out in distress. Lucy jerked awake, stray strands of her hair drifting around her face like a halo, backlit by spikes of light jabbing through the cracks in the wall. Her hand rose, as though to ward him off, even though Black Hat still hovered near the door. 

“Don’t,” she said, voice surprisingly strong despite the fear that leached from her body and hung in the air around her. 

Black Hat inhaled sharply, revelling in the scent of fear and weakness that emanated from every part of her body. It coursed like wildfire through his veins, setting every sense alight and making him feel powerful, alive, vital. 

“Don’t what?” he asked, fangs flashing in the light again as he spoke. “I haven’t even done anything yet.” 

“I don’t care. Whatever it is you’re planning to do, don’t do it,” she said, trying to scoot away from him, yet found her escape was restricted by the wall at her back. 

She tried to scuttle away, following the curve of the train wall, using scrabbling legs and arms to smooch along on her ass. Her dress, long since dusty grew dustier still, yet she didn’t seem to even notice nor care. Finally, her shoulder connected with the far bars of her confining cage and couldn’t go any further. Black Hat made short work of the distance remaining between them, heavy boots clonking against the floor, echoing in odd cadences around them. She screamed, cowered away as far as she could as the vampire knelt before her, one gloved hand reaching forward to twist a strand of her hair between his fingers. Lucy reached up, grabbed his coat sleeve between her clutching fingers and tried to push him away yet she was not strong enough; hardly anyone was. 

Black Hat chuckled and leant in, nose snuffling heated breath against the curve of her throat as he inhaled the fresh scent of victim from her skin. His eyes widened, yellow eyes glinting in the meagre light, looking for all the world like the predator he really was. The wild beast inside him reacted to the blood pumping so close to his mouth, yet he resisted the urge to strike, to feed, to sink fangs into tender flesh and render it worthless. He still had need for her yet.

She screamed again, both fists flailing now, beating at his shoulders and head, knocking his hat onto the floor. He snarled, slammed his fist against the wall by her ear and snarled again until she stilled, eyes darting and searching for escape. 

“Don’t do that,” he said. “It will go so badly if you struggle.” 

Lucy didn’t reply; instead, she continued to look for avenues of escape, yet Black Hat was too close. His hand moved quickly to pin her against the wall with the combined strength of a Priest and vampire running through every vein and muscle and sinew he possessed. 

“Don’t kill me,” she said.

“I can’t,” he said, slowly. “Not yet. Don’t you understand that?“

“Please don’t,” she said, almost as though she hadn’t heard him. 

Black Hat snorted through his nose, her fear clogging in his throat and sending raw power coiling through him to empower him. He licked his lips, tongue catching on his fangs as he did so, before he leant in again. She didn’t react, almost as though her fear had finally gotten the better of her, freezing everything inside her until she couldn’t feel any more, couldn’t move, couldn’t react.

Black Hat rested his forehead against the side of her head, eyes closing as he smiled. He had her now, had her where he most wanted her, submissive, easily biddable to his will. He hadn't been lying to her when he said he wouldn’t kill her; he needed her alive as a living bargaining chip, to ensure the blond Priest, her father, would come after her and ensure the final showdown between Priest and Black Hat. That didn’t mean, however, that he wouldn’t hurt her still. 

She remained sightlessly staring off into space, when he moved, hand sliding into his coat pocket to produce a knife from hidden depths. She reacted then, hitting out wildly at him, kicking, screaming yet ultimately subdued by a stinging slap across her cheek. She fell back, partially stunned, eyes unfocussed as Black Hat reached forward to tickle the side of her neck with the tip of his knife-blade. He licked his lips again, breathing deeply as he pressed a little harder, hard enough to slice through skin and draw blood. He leant forward, inhaling the coppery tang of her blood, awakening his senses still further. The wild beast inside him urged him to strike, to sink fangs into her again and again, yet still he resisted.

He leant in still further, cradling her against him as he lapped her blood from her neck using only his tongue. He knew that if he bit her, then all would be lost and he would lose his bargaining chip. As soon as his fangs slid home, then the venom would seep into her system and there would be nothing he could do except watch while she turned into one of the ghastly, fibrous Familiars that he could make and find by the dozen. He knew it was safer this way, to slice her up and drink while using only his tongue to defile his enemy’s flesh. 

Her body felt limp against him, too heavy and he drew away after taking only a small amount of blood from her, a dark red smear staining his lips shining in a sudden stab of light filtering in. He blinked and drew away still further, standing, hands hanging loose by his side. Lucy didn’t move, yet her chest rose and fell steadily, skin only a little paler than it had been before. Black Hat nodded to himself, bent and picked up his hat. He dusted it off, before placing it back upon his head, fingers lingering against the brim for a few brief seconds. He turned, and left her alone, closing the barred door behind him with a clanging clatter. The lock slid home with one final sound, yet still she didn’t move. 

Black Hat spared her one final glance, warmth spreading through him even from the scant amount of blood he’d consumed from her, power running rampant and wild through his very body. One more flash of yellow eyes in the darkness and the vampire was gone; the only indication he’d ever been there at all was the cut that sliced across Lucy’s otherwise perfect and unmarked skin.


End file.
